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Berezkin/Duvakin Catalogue of Motifs
English translation, enhancements and additional metadata by Jonathan Fielder-White
Source: Berezkin and Duvakin's Analytical Catalogue · Original catalogue (Russian)
About the catalogue and its sources
Unless otherwise stated, narrative and tradition data comes from Berezkin and Duvakin's Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area (Analytical catalogue).
Original Berezkin/Duvakin catalogue (Russian)
The English translation uses AI assistance alongside manual verification. Errors may occur; consult the original source when in doubt.
All motif categories
| Ref | Title | Summary | Traditions | Narratives ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M78f In M78 family | Substituted embryo | When a woman falls asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) places an embryo or the entrails of an animal or something similar next to her to make the woman herself or others think she has a miscarriage or that her viscera has fallen out. | 21 | 23 |
| M91c6 In M91 family | The hat pays the bills, (ATU 1539) | A person sells a hat to others, convincing them that it pays the bill, you just have to lift it up (throw it on the floor, etc.). He actually paid the innkeeper in advance. | 21 | 23 |
| N24 | Like the second moon | You can see a light that resembles a second moon or a second sun. It comes from a pretty girl. | 24 | 23 |
| A12f In A12 family | The Money Lender. | The stars fade because the moneylender demands that they repay their debt. | 21 | 24 |
| A36a In A36 family | Sun and immortality. | The sun is contrasted with humans as immortal to mortals; responsible for the mortal nature of humans. | 17 | 24 |
| B2c In B2 family | The earth as an anthropomorphic body. | The earth as a whole, elements of the landscape or fertile soil arise from the human body and (or) the earth (islands) are born of a woman. | 18 | 24 |
| B6 | Walking towards each other, they get married. | The first or only remaining man and woman move towards each other, going around a mountain, a pole or otherwise following a circle from opposite sides, and when they meet, they get married. | 17 | 24 |
| B84 | Mushrooms and growths (transformation of a cannibal). | After a demonic character (usually a woman who pursues the hero) dies, her flesh turns into objects found on trees - mushrooms, resin, fruits, cones. | 15 | 24 |
| C25c In C25 family | The Big Dipper and the end of the world. | A change in the configuration of a certain constellation (usually the Big Dipper) or its disappearance from the sky will signal a global catastrophe. | 19 | 24 |
| E29 | The lizard makes hands for humans, A1311.1. | Two characters (usually a coyote and a lizard) argue about whether human hands should be shaped like paws or end in fingers. | 17 | 24 |
| E5aa In E5 family | People grew like grass. | The first people grew out of the ground like trees, grass, and mushrooms. | 20 | 24 |
| E5d In E5 family | The predator watches over those who leave. | The first people to arrive on earth and settle within a limited space are threatened by a predator or monster. | 21 | 24 |
| E9i3 In E9 family | The magical wife – the goose. | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a goose. | 32 | 24 |
| E9j In E9 family | The magical wife – monkey. | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife) has the image of a monkey, or the man hides the woman and pretends that the mistress is a monkey. | 20 | 24 |
| F41 | Husbands kill wives. | Ancestral men kill women who behave contrary to social norms. | 14 | 24 |
| F5a In F5 family | Woman from a tail, ATU 798. | God was going to make Eve from Adam's rib. The rib was stolen by a dog (cat, fox, monkey, devil). God (or an angel sent by him) chased after the thief, grabbed him by the tail and tore it off. God made Eve from this tail. Either God first made a woman from edible material and the dog ate this figure. He had to make a new one from Adam's rib. Or God cut off Adam's tail and made Eve from it. | 23 | 24 |
| F80 | First humans without genitals. | The first men and/or women have no genitals, then they acquire them. | 25 | 24 |
| F88 | The scent of women. | Female genitals are initially fragrant or odourless, but then acquire an unpleasant odour (they do not acquire a fragrant odour). | 21 | 24 |
| F98 | God and the cow. | A heavenly anthropomorphic deity descends to earth and mates with a cow. | 11 | 24 |
| G13b In G13 family | Mushrooms as inferior food. | Before the advent of cultivated plants, people ate mushrooms. Creatures of a non-human nature feed on mushrooms. Mushrooms are imaginary, inferior food. | 20 | 24 |
| I27a In I27 family | Settlements and dog trails. | The souls of dead dogs go to a special place in the afterlife and/or go to the afterlife along a special path. | 26 | 24 |
| I53 | An insect annoys the support of the earth. | An insect or other small creature bothers the animal that supports the earth, so the animal moves and the earth shakes (or, conversely, the animal is afraid to move because of the insect). | 22 | 24 |
| I86a In I86 family | Down turns into snow. | Snow arises from bird down when a bird shakes itself in the sky or when a character shakes out down or fur clothing, plucks birds, etc. | 21 | 24 |
| I87ab In I87 family | Only a child can move it. | Strong men or a crowd of people cannot move the body of a dead animal or the leg of a motionless person, but a child or a woman can do it easily. Cf. motif B83. | 15 | 24 |
| I97 | Rainbow horse. | Rainbow – hoofed animal (horse, bull, goat, sheep). | 24 | 24 |
| J23D In J23 family | Late twins defeat the monster. | People in general or older brothers (siblings, older sister) disappear one after another. A woman raises two twins (or several children) from infancy. They defeat their antagonists, usually reviving or freeing those who have disappeared. | 16 | 24 |
| J41d In J41 family | Throwing a stick, he exposes his forehead. | The strongman orders an iron club (sword, etc.) of monstrous size to be made, but breaks it and demands a new one, even heavier (often throwing it into the air and exposing his forehead, etc. – the club breaks). | 17 | 24 |
| J53b In J53 family | The breasts of a murdered mother. | Two women live together, both have children. One of them leaves the house with the other, kills her, brings her meat home and starts cooking it. The children of the deceased notice their mother's breasts (in California – eyes or liver), or the mother's breasts themselves turn to her children. | 17 | 24 |
| J54a In J54 family | The Calf and the Tiger Cub, ATU 131. | Two women, both or one of whom are animal characters, live together and have children. One of them kills and eats the other or is about to do so. The son of the murderer kills his mother for this, remains the sworn brother of the son of the murdered woman, or the children of the murderer and the victim run away together. Cf. motif J54B. | 18 | 24 |
| K102a In K102 family | Father knew what he was doing. | A man orders the killing of a young man's sister, wife or mother. The young man does not allow such an order to be carried out, and then repents of this. | 20 | 24 |
| K107a4 In K107 family | The daughter asks for a magical groom to be brought to her. | When her father leaves, the daughter asks him to bring her an object or creature that embodies a magical groom. The father does not understand the meaning of her request. | 16 | 24 |
| K10d In K10 family | A bird carries the hero away to an island. | A flying monster carries the hero away to a distant island. The hero kills the monster and uses a boat, bridge or rope made from part of the monster's body to return. | 15 | 24 |
| K116a In K116 family | Nesmeyana (the disguised tsar perishes). | The king takes or is about to take the poor man's wife. She suggests that the king put on clothes that are not his own (usually those that belonged to her husband). After that, the king is killed by his own soldiers (dogs), who believe him to be a poor man (jester, devil). | 20 | 24 |
| K116b In K116 family | A dog instead of a beauty in the chest. | In order to take possession of the girl, the antagonist creates a situation in which her relatives are forced to put her in a chest (barrel, sack, etc.) and leave her there. The girl is secretly replaced by a ferocious dog or other animal. When the antagonist opens the chest, the animal usually kills or mauls him. | 20 | 24 |
| K119d In K119 family | Puss in Boots. | A cat helps a poor young man marry a princess (a girl marry a prince). | 22 | 24 |
| K154 | Inscription on a skull. | A person finds a skull on which a mysterious and gloomy prophecy is written or which utters it. Then it becomes clear what it means. | 16 | 24 |
| K175 | The wind blew away the flour, ATU 759C. | A man was carrying flour, but the wind blew it away. The man complains to an authoritative figure and usually receives compensation. Cf. motif M57d3 ("The Wind-Giver"). | 20 | 24 |
| K27z4 In K27 family | The dice player's trained animal. | The character always wins bets or outplays others thanks to a trained cat (mouse, rat) that holds (or extinguishes in time) a lamp, turns dice, etc. The hero releases the mouse (or cat, mongoose, respectively), the cat rushes after it (or the mouse is afraid to come out), and the character loses. | 28 | 24 |
| K27z7 In K27 family | To learn what the rose of the heart is. | The character promises to fulfil a request if the other person reveals the secret behind someone's strange behaviour. | 23 | 24 |
| K43b In K43 family | The bird brings meat. | People leave a boy, a girl, a sister and brother, a young woman or young spouses alone and leave, or drive them away. Those who are left behind or driven away discover unusual abilities or helpers, obtaining blood and food. Those who are abandoned eat their fill, while those who abandon them go hungry. A character (often a bird - a crow, magpie, seagull, etc.) visits the abandoned and brings a piece of fat or meat to the camp of the starving. | 20 | 24 |
| K51b In K51 family | Smiles on the faces of the dead. | The bodies of the slain are left in such a position that it seems as if they are rejoicing – smiling, laughing, dancing. | 14 | 24 |
| K56a5d In K56 family | Conversation with Moroz. | A person responds kindly to a question from a character embodying cold, praises him, and is rewarded. Another expresses dissatisfaction and is punished. | 10 | 24 |
| K58a In K58 family | Water in exchange for love. | The character brings water for irrigation or a fish river to the place where the girl agrees to meet him, and does not bring water if she refuses. (The parallel between the myths of Peru and Oregon was first noted in Lehmann-Nitsche 1935a; 1936). | 14 | 24 |
| K73a6 In K73 family | A child turns into a tree. | Malicious women kill (throw away) her wonderful children. Trees (flowers) grow from their remains, later reincarnating into humans. | 24 | 24 |
| K78a In K78 family | Swallows and heals. | A demonic character swallows cripples and regurgitates them healthy and beautiful. | 16 | 24 |
| K89b In K89 family | The brother left on the tree. | At the beginning of the story, the sister parts with her brothers (or one brother), who die, remain on trees, on a hill, ascend to the sky, etc. Usually, after a successful marriage, the sister meets her brothers again, who have acquired superhuman nature. | 14 | 24 |
| K92C In K92 family | The wife weaves, the husband sells. | A princess or sorceress turns out to be the wife of a poor man. She weaves or embroiders a scarf (or other item) and sends her husband to sell it. This marks the beginning of their path to success. | 24 | 24 |
| L100g In L100 family | The One-Legged Goose, ATU 785A. | A servant serves his master a roasted bird, one of whose legs has already been eaten. He tells him to look at the chickens, geese, etc., which are standing on one leg. When they run away, it becomes clear that they all have two legs. Usually, the servant says that if the master had scared the roasted goose, it would have shown its second leg too. | 40 | 24 |
| L16b In L16 family | Eyes on the knees. | The eyes or mouths of creatures are located on joints (knees, etc.). | 19 | 24 |
| L23b In L23 family | Transformation into a spindle. | Trying to free himself, the captured character sequentially changes his appearance. The last transformation is into a spindle. | 9 | 24 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.